Browns: Joe Banner says Jimmy Haslam isn't selling Browns

Nobody in Cleveland knew who Jimmy Haslam was a year ago, and now he is known as the Browns owner whose Pilot Flying J travel center empire has been exposed for fraud.

The FBI investigation that has led to five Pilot employees pleading guilty to defrauding trucking companies of promised rebates is continuing. Haslam has not been charged and has said repeatedly he knew nothing about the scheme.

Training camp for the Browns begins Thursday. One year ago, on the first day of the 2012 training camp, Haslam began the process of buying the Browns from Randy Lerner. He was like a knight riding in on his white steed with grand plans to return the glory days to the Browns. He said he planned to be an aggressive hands-on owner with visions of molding the Browns into a perennial contender.

None of that has changed in light of the Pilot Flying J scandal, Browns CEO Joe Banner said Wednesday during a 22-minute interview in the fieldhouse in Berea. He said Haslam has no plans to sell the Browns and that nothing in the front office has changed.

"It really hasn't affected us at all," Banner said. "We have a team we put together here of really, really good people, whether we're talking the coaching staff, the business side, even our foundation. We're really excited about the team we put together.

"I don't know what we can say (to fans) beyond what we've said. And I understand why that doesn't give everybody total peace of mind, believe me. But I don't know what we can say more than we're operating the team exactly as we would whether this had happened or not. Jimmy is here and incredibly supportive and a huge asset to us. I think he's made it clear and I've tried to make it clear without any ambiguity at all that he's not going to sell the team. But I understand why until that actually happens and this thing plays itself out that it's a legitimate question."

Banner was asked if there is any scenario in which Haslam might sell the Browns.

"I don't see that scenario, but you know ..." and did not finish the sentence. He said the NFL has remained supportive.

"I think the league feels really good about the way things are going, but they have a wait-and-see attitude as well," Banner said. "We'll see what happens and then we'll go from there. But I think they feel very good about Jimmy. They have a lot of belief in him. He's been very open and transparent with them. I think they feel confident in the way they see him leading and the team that we've all put together to operate things."

Banner said Haslam's plans to be a hands-on owner have not changed. Haslam will likely be on the practice field at 4 p.m. Thursday for the first practice of training camp open to the public.

"The vision he told me he had for how he wanted to be an owner, which included him talking about some of the other owners in the league that he respected and that he wanted to operate in a similar manner to, is exactly the way things have gone," Banner said. "So whatever terms may have been used in terms of being hands on, how he defined that to me and how we've operated our totally in synch."

Other highlights of the meeting with Banner include:

- On his expectations for 2013: "My focus is really on wanting to see the shift in the culture that we've talked about -- the effort, wanting to see the schemes that the coaches are putting in, the players get better as the season goes in what we're doing. Seeing the young players develop that we're talking about and hoping that they are all what we think they could be. That's really my focus -- wanting to see the work ethic and the pace that you saw in the spring stay through the whole season. So I think if we see those things then we're on the right track."

- On quarterback Brandon Weeden: "I don't know in terms of any final answers but we're excited about the fact that he's come in. Chud has spoken about this extensively. He has worked real hard and he's done everything that they've asked him to do. He's got obviously a lot more work. But he's gotten in here and he's gotten a chance to progress on the mental aspect of the position, so I think everyone is encouraged on how hard he's working and how bad it seems he wants to do well."

- On wide receiver Josh Gordon being suspended two games for violating the league's substance abuse policy: " He spent a fair amount of time talking to Chud and he's got to do some work and he understands he's going to be held accountable and he gets it that the rope that's left isn't long. In working with the coaches, they need to see that commitment, that work ethic. Obviously, off the field he needs to make good choices."

- On some fans being upset about the new policy to sell season tickets without charging for PSLs: "We got some calls. I want to keep it proportionate. Most people understood it and realized it was actually a good thing for them. I don't know of any stadiums where there isn't a cap on the number of PSLs in the stadium. I built one in Philadelphia with 29,000 seat licenses and all the other seats didn't have seat licenses. It's good for the fans to have a limited number of seat licenses if part of their interest is seeing the value of that either stabilize or increase. Because as long as there's an unlimited quantity available, there's no chance of the price kind of stabilizing and escalating."

- On cell phone reception in First Energy Stadium: "Your cell phones will work. We expanded the DAS (Distributed Antenna System) system which is really what controls cell service and to some extent iPad service. So you will have complete cell service and you will have partial use of iPads and things like that."

- On plans for stadium improvements this season: "We think there were some real basic things, like cleanliness for example. Things like the bathrooms were repainted in Browns colors so they feel clean. The size of the trash cans in the concourses and the frequency they're going to get picked up is going to be dramatically changed. Just some subtle, basic things. I think there's also some areas around egress that we won't completely solve this year, but we're going to try to mitigate their experience. There's a range of things like that. It's those kinds of items we're able to do now. Looking long-term at trying to do something bigger than that, though."

Banner said more dramatic improvement s will be made starting in January. The plan is to announce what they will be at the beginning of the 2013 season.